Brian Roberts: Oral and Video Collection Interview

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• published: 13 Aug 2013
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O'CONNELL: Hi, I'm Libby O'Connell. I'm here interviewing Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. Today is August 24, 2006 and I'm here conducting an interview for The Cable Center's Oral History Program. Welcome Brian. I'm glad you could join us. ROBERTS: Thanks, Libby. Glad to be here. O'CONNELL: It's nice to have you here. You know, there are a whole collection of these oral histories on the website and you can go in and they're asking people how they got involved in cable and everyone has a different story. You have a very different story compared to most people. What was it like growing up in a cable family? ROBERTS: Well, first of all, there are five kids in my family, my brothers and sisters, and my parents really never pushed their passion onto any of the kids so every one of my family members is enjoying their own life and enjoying their own passions. In my case, business was appealing from a disgustingly young age of like five or six that I wanted to work with my father. In those days, it wasn't even called cable television; it was community antenna television and it wasn't as exciting a business, I think, as it is now, but the dream was to perpetuate and build a company that could go on for generations and work with my father in doing that. O'CONNELL: Your dad tells a story that when you were about ten you started going to meetings with him. Is that right? Is he exaggerating? ROBERTS: Sadly, no, he's not exaggerating. In those days there was not quite the videogame excitement of stay at home as a young kid and I used to tag along with my father. He would literally sit me in the corner and say, "Just watch and don't say anything," and that lasted about ten minutes and then I'd put my hand up and say, "Well, I thought of one thing..." -- usually stupid ideas, but he nurtured me. He wanted it, I wanted it to work. It wasn't because, well, this is the way I do it, sonny, so therefore this is the way you should do it. From the beginning it's been, I think, a dream for him, too. So we've been very lucky. O'CONNELL: You went to Wharton undergrad, right? I think you're five years younger than I am. ROBERTS: I graduated in 1981, and my father graduated from Wharton in 1941, so we're forty years apart and it was a great place, and is a great place. O'CONNELL: So you graduated in '81, and then when did you start working at Comcast? ROBERTS: '81. O'CONNELL: '81! More: http://www.cablecenter.org/barco-library-hauser-oral-history/item/roberts-brian.html